Open in TheBrain

CFACT sum

NOT SURE WHAT SUM MEANS

{bad code? (bit lost?}:

no merri

see rucker ZELDIN COUP 2026 HEartland conf

see morano

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yahoo mail 11 22

shortly after he took office, President Biden announced a goal of building 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind by 2030, enough clean energy to power 10 million homes. For the administration, the offshore wind target was a part of a larger strategy of reducing carbon pollution and putting the country on track for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. But, like many clean energy plans, this one was met with immediate resistance.

In August 2021, CBS News reported that Nantucket Residents Against Turbines — or ACK Rats — launched a lawsuit against the administration's offshore wind plans. The Massachusetts-based resident group argued that offshore wind development “poses a threat to the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale.”

A few months later, a resident group in New Jersey launched another lawsuit against the Biden administration. Bob Stern, president of Save Long Beach Island, told Reuters that he and his fellow residents worried that the wind turbines would destroy their local tourism economy.

Within a year of announcing the goal, the Biden administration faced lawsuits from resident groups in every coastal state from Maine to North Carolina. Some groups sued over endangered whales. Others argued that the turbines would hurt their property values or the local fishing industry.

If you only read the news stories about these lawsuits, you might think this was yet another example of wealthy residents blocking clean energy development. Or you might see a familiar story of environmentalists getting in the way of environmental progress. But you’d be missing the most important part of the story. Nearly every story neglects to mention these groups are being funded by a far-right think tank that receives funding from fossil fuel companies and billionaires.

Who’s behind the offshore wind lawsuits?

According to their website, Protect Our Coast NJ — one of the groups opposing Biden’s offshore wind plans — is a group of “residents, homeowners, business owners, fishermen and visitors of the New Jersey coastal communities.” Media reports accept this description at face value.

In May 2022, Ashbury Park Press — the third largest newspaper in New Jersey — ran a story about Protect Our Coast NJ with the headline, “Could offshore wind turbines blow away Long Beach Island tourism?” The story positions Protect Our Coast NJ as a group of residents and features many of the talking points and studies on the nonprofit’s website:

Ric Bertsch, an Ocean City resident and member of the group Protect Our Coast NJ, which opposes the wind projects as they are currently designed, said he worries about the impacts to communities like his own.

He said the county will suffer the consequences of New Jersey's new experiment with offshore wind turbines, which will harm the tourist experience and block large swaths of ocean from commercial fishing

"The only brand (in Ocean City) that we have to offer the world is our old-fashioned values, our quiet, our peaceful place to be," said Suzanne Hornick, also of Ocean City and leading member of Protect Our Coast NJ. "This (wind turbine project) really screws with our brand."

As of this writing, the “Donate” button on the Protect Our Coast NJ website redirects to a PayPal link that reads “Donate to Caesar Rodney Institute.”

grift graphic]

Caesar Rodney Institute (CRI)is one of more than 50 think tanks in the State Policy Network (SPN). As The Intercept’s Lee Fang reported, CRI receives funding from fossil fuel trade groups like the American Fuel & Petrochemical Association. The think tank also receives funding from Donors Trust, the “dark money ATM of the conservative movement.”

In September 2021, CRI’s David Stevenson — a former member of President Trump’s EPA transition team —  held a press conference in front of the Massachusetts State House where he announced a legal fund for groups fighting Biden’s offshore wind plans. By that point, Stevenson had raised $75,000 from his network of donors, and said he hoped to raise $500,000 for the effort.

When asked by E&E’s Ben Storrow who was funding the campaign, Stevenson said, “So far there is no Koch money, not that we wouldn’t take it.”

CRI’s efforts quickly attracted the attention of much larger conservative groups like theHeartland Institute and Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT). In September 2022, one year after the press conference, both organizations announced a partnership with CRI to sue an offshore wind project in Virginia.

According to the Union for Concerned Scientists, the Heartland Institute and CFACT have both received about $500,000 in funding from ExxonMobil. The Heartland Institute has been called “a leading force in climate change denial.” Media Matters for America named CFACT Founder Marc Morano its climate denier of the year in 2012. Marano, who began his career working for Rush Limbaugh, has said climate scientists “deserve to be publicly flogged.”

In a press release, CFACT President Craig Rucker said, “We are not only very concerned about the future of the right whale, which extensively uses the ocean waters affected by the wind-power project, but also concerned as to how [the federal government] will address the fact that this project, despite its alleged benefits regarding carbon dioxide and climate change, will actually cause the release of more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than it will consume.” This, like most of CFACT’s statements about climate change, is false.

Reporters consistently tell a misleading story

None of these connections to the country’s infamous climate denial network are mentioned in the Ashbury Park Press news story about Protect Our Coast NJ. And the local New Jersey newspaper isn’t alone. According to a Popular Information analysis, 11 media outlets have covered Protect Our Coast NJ. None of them mention CRI, its donors, or the legal fund.

Popular Information found that reporters routinely failed to mention connections to CRI when writing about Save Our Beach View, Save Long Beach Island, and Nantucket Residents Against Turbines, three of the other resident groups in the coalition. Instead, these articles spread many of the resident groups’ misleading claims about clean energy.

In January, Reuters wrote a story about Save Long Beach Island’s lawsuit against the federal government. The article did not mention the group's ties to CRI.

Bob Stern, president of Save Long Beach Island, told Reuters that they are concerned by the aesthetic impacts of the turbines, and potential lost tourism due to their interference with Long Beach Island's current unobstructed seascape. The group says tourism is the community's "economic lifeblood."

In 2019, researchers at the University of Rhode Island published a paper analyzing the impacts of offshore wind farms on tourism. They used empirical data based on the United States’ only offshore wind farm off the coast of Block Island, Rhode Island. The researchers concluded that the wind farm resulted in more tourism, not less. This study isn’t mentioned in the Reuters story.

Another frequent concern mentioned by resident groups is the risk to endangered species. CBS covered this last year when they wrote:

The "ACK Residents Against Turbines" who filed the lawsuit said the proposed Vineyard Wind project poses a threat to the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale.

Jessica Redfern, a senior scientist at Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life, told Cape Cod Times that the greatest threat to the North Atlantic Right Whale’s continued existence “comes from collision with vessels and entanglement in fishing gear, particularly lobster pot buoy lines.” She added, “Another big factor is climate change and one of the ways we can minimize that is adopting clean energy (policies) and offshore wind is a great source of that.” She said she had never heard of Save Long Beach Island.

In addition to misleading readers, this poor coverage creates more opposition to offshore wind projects and funnels local residents to the nonprofits’ websites and Facebook pages, which routinely share misinformation about clean energy.

Decarbonizing America’s electric grid and economy will require support from people in every community in the country. But, letting fossil fuel companies and climate deniers control the narrative is a sure way to turn communities of supporters into groups of passionate opponents.

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ggl doc:  

[Helen Chenoweth- Hage : RW martyr (died in SUV rollovers no seatbelt avoiding TSA)](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1U5j0YOSMEe_cOinOskb2ltfGfR2XbeEcBNy7IU4axp8/edit

“collegians”)

seat belts Nader;  [Mich GOP official killed herself while adjusting bra holster]; endangered salmon bakes; six year affair but attacked BC

[Several recent posts complained about Common Core education standards, and about President Barack Obama. Other posts depicted black protesters in Ferguson as dangerous rioters.

“Here’s the most critical evasive driving tactic to avoid getting swarmed and killed in a riot,” one post was titled: rawstory]http://www.rawstory.com/2015/02/michigan-republican-official-fatally-shoots-self-in-eye-while-adjusting-gun-in-her-bra-holster/

Dreissen

Morano

Craig Rucker: Truth Squad w/ Inhofe

Alex Epstein interviewed Rucker (F/Y to AG Healey) [ntbcw racist marcus)

See hacksinger

CFACT seems to punch above weight (RS rates #12 disinfo); well-funded, large network (board),climate, DDT, GMO, Agenda 21; show up to counter-protest every COP? (nice junket, more than their share of PR for balance, and students do stunts.  And when they are scorned, laughed at or excluded, that turns into a PR victory for the scrappy rebels who stand up to the Powers That Be. (e.g., press conf cut short for Kerry).

Crypto:  Powell said build up mirror functions, but but some people/organisations go on the offensive, to the darkside and try to destroy the entity they copy; a fake pirg trying to kill the real ones!

Irking because portray themselves, especially Rucker, but to a lesser degree Driessen) as humanitarians, though no evidence that "collegians" are doing much work in developing countries (vs UN conf junkets) ;  they cite two project in 2014 in Uganda [Innis pal of Idi Amin; kill the gays law C-Street], doubling the number of PC’s in an internet cafe  (solar later), and a brickmaker (they do not say how he was assisted, or what fuels source he will use to fire them (wood?).

Also cite at least two trips to Cancun to assist schools (one description implied the students helped paint, another says that the recycled laptops somehow empowered the locals to do it; The solar panels look pretty rudimentary and small, and the kids are pictured with two laptops, adorned with CFACT bumper stickers (which somewhat inexplicably feature a tree, perhaps homage to the libertarian paradise of Stanford).  Generosity should in no way be disparaged, but many small town Habitat for Humanity not to mention church youth groups’ output put CFACT to shame, especially when considering its multi-million dollar annual budget.

all collegian blog post by two male students? bloviating the party line (including the baffling anti-wind vitriol) Established 1985, 1989 asked chemical industry for money to attack PIRGs.

:{:{}:

}:

Craig Rucker, Executive Director, Co-Founder MPA, forty colleges; field trips to UN (and says that his two development programs are UN sanctioned (only one seems to exist), but these mostly seem to be protests of UN IPCC.  Heartland 2012

“CFACT is committed to educating the public and exposing global warming for what it truly is — a massive redistribution scheme. This scheme is not designed to strengthen the U.S. economy, but to throttle it down.”

Morano: CFACT funds ClimateDepot (Press conf Durban with Inhofe) 12/11

COP15 Singer

:{:{}:

}:

Helen Chenoweth- Hage (R-ID) the new "Friend of American Freedom Award 2000 RIP

David Rothbard (seems to be no relation to Murray, founding but cranky libertarian, wrote a play satirizing Ayn Rand, fired by Charles/ Koch), founder, testimony;  ALEC workshop on climate; radio (TV? doc Climate Hustle)

SMOKING GUN:

In 1998 (four months after BP’s Lord Brown praised Kyoto)The “Global Climate Science Communications Team” was led by the American Petroleum Institute (API), an industry lobby group bankrolled by Exxon and increasingly used as a political cover for their activities, devised the

"Global Climate Science Communications Action Plan" to cast doubt on the science in order to stall climate action, right out of the tobacco playbook (in fact some were veterans). As much as 8 million dollars budgeted.

GCSCT members who contributed to the development of the plan are A. John Adams, John Adams Associates; Candace Crandall [Mrs Fred Singer], Science and Environmental Policy Project; David Rothbard, Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow; Jeffrey Salmon, The Marshall Institute; Lee Garrigan, environmental issues Council; Lynn Bouchey and Myron Ebell, Frontiers of Freedom; Peter Cleary, Americans for Tax Reform; Randy Randol, Exxon Corp.; Robert Gehri, The Southern Company; Sharon Kneiss, Chevron Corp; SteveMilloy, The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition; and Joseph Walker, American Petroleum Institute.

Dreissen (Renta-tom, CORE, Ag 21, Green is New Red) Eco-Imperialism: Green Power Black Death; EPA is danger, not AGW:  Heartland, Swindle; Cornwall

“Global average temperatures peaked in 1998 and since have cooled slightly, despite steadily rising CO2 levels. Except in its Western Peninsula, Antarctica is gaining ice, and Antarctic sea ice reached an all-time high in 2007. Arctic ice is seasonably normal, and in 2008 the Northern Hemisphere was covered by more snow than ever before recorded.”

Aligned with Wise Use wackos like Ron Arnold, and hacks Willie Soon and Fred Singer; but also with evil sellout Reta-Tom CORE. Wise Use was in some ways Tea Party 1.0, cowboy division, fuelled by extractive resource corporations who want to get natural resources for free then not clean up the mess. What is new /evil is the co-opting of environmental justice: that is, the people who have birth defects in Cancer Alley LA or Kettleman City  CA because of hazardous waste being trucked in, whose water is contaminated by landfills and fracking, etc etc. For a while there was a legitimate complaint that the environmental movement became too White and suburban, worried about beautiful alpine forests the way the first wave conservationists had been, or polar bears and pandas.

These rifts are being healed, but the right takes its old notion of statistical murder, mixes it with the anti-Carson pro-DDT nonsense, then adds a dollop of anti-Commie Agenda 21 lunacy so Driessen ally Roy Innis claims the green movement is “killing black babies.” (murder by denying DDT). Roy tends to stay out of the spotlight since his ruse is easily and has been repeatedly exposed over the years which hurts his credibility thus usefulness thus profits. He runs a telemarketing boiler-room operation which basically uses threat of exposing an organization as racists (again, a spinoff/niche protection racket): His son Niger is more attracted to the limelight and has largely inherited the franchise, and openly uses the terms “Eco-imperialism”, parroted from Driessen, and even “eco-slaughter” ( ).

K Kemm sic nuke

Very large board, usual suspects: Whelan ACSH, Roger Bate (UK)

Co-sponsored Heartland conf 2012

In December 2013 CFACT served as amicus curiae for the Southeastern Legal Foundation in the review of the Utility Air Regulatory Group v. Environmental Protection Agency case.

Funding: 3.7m$ 2012 Donor's Trust (Koch), Scaife, Chevron, car makers, ExxonMobil

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desmog 3/22

CFACT is also a member of the Cooler Heads Coalition, which describes its aim as“dispelling the myths of global warming through sound science and analysis.” [18]

Funding

The following data is based on publicly available 990 tax records, and information from the Conservative Transparency project’s breakdown ofCFACT‘s funding. [19]

View the attached spreadsheet for additional details on The Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow’s funding by year (.xlsx). Note that not all individual values have been verified by DeSmog. [19]

DonorTotal
DonorsTrust$7,855,387
The Carthage Foundation$1,565,000
Sarah**Scaife** Foundation$1,495,000
ExxonMobil*$582,000
Donors Capital Fund$395,000
Dunn’s Foundation for the Advancement of Right Thinking$107,000
Charles G.**Koch**Charitable Foundation$27,752
Dodge Jones Foundation$27,500
Chase Foundation of Virginia$27,000
Armstrong Foundation$20,000
The Robertson-Finley Foundation$18,000
Charles Koch Institute$10,500
The Challenge Foundation$10,000
Edison Electric Institute$8,000
Jewish Communal Fund$6,000
Charles and Ann Johnson Foundation$5,000
Eric Javits Family Foundation$3,700
John P and Kathryn G Evans Foundation$3,000
Kickapoo Springs Foundation$2,500
Same Line Foundation$1,000
Wodecroft Foundation$1,000
Schwab Charitable Fund$500
National Christian Charitable Foundation$500
Grand Total$12,171,339

“No Fossil Fuel Money for over a Decade”?

On September 22, 2020, Paul Driessen, senior policy advisor for CFACT, wrote apromotional piece for :{CFACT:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:‘s Climate Hustle 2 movie at *Watts Up With That* where he claimed “CFACT has received no fossil fuel money for over a decade, and got only small amounts before that.” [20]

DeSmog’s research below suggests CFACT received funding from fossil fuel companies (Murray Energy) as recently as 10/05/2018. Between 2014 and 2016, CFACT also received grants from Charles Koch’s foundation and institute totaling $38,252. A large portion of the Kochs’ fortune has come from refining and producing fossil fuels. [20]

Murray Energy Funding

Murray Energy bankruptcy filings in 2019 revealed CFACT was among groups who received funding from the energy company owned by climate change denier Robert Murray. The filings revealed a wide range of creditors with deep ties to climate change denial including the Heartland Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Government Accountability and Oversight, FreedomWorks, and the International Climate Science Coalition. Robert Murray was known for being a major Trump donor, and giving officials a wish list of proposed actions to help the coal industry. See related reporting from *The Intercept*, *Energy and Environment News*, and *The New York Times*. [21], [22], [23]

Other groups funded by Murray Energy include FreedomWorks, the Cato Institute, and Judicial Watch. As The New York Times noted, Murray continued to fund climate change denial even as his company was going bankrupt.

According to the filing documents, Murray Energy gave CFACT a cash contribution of $5,000 on 10/05/2018. [24]

*ExxonMobil Funding

ExxonSecrets research found that :{CFACT:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: :{has received $582,000 from ExxonMobil :(style="box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:600"):}:since 1998. [6:{]:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:

Donors Trust (DT) & Donors Capital Fund (DCF)

As reported above, CFACT received a total of $395,000 from Donors Capital Fund (DCF) between 2005 and 2015, and a total of $7,855,387 from DonorsTrust (DT) between 2008 and 2017. Both DonorsTrust and DCF distribute millions of dollars to conservative and free enterprise groups while concealing the identity of the original donors.

Koch Funding

According to research by Greenpeace, CFACT has received a grand total of $29,752 from Koch-related foundations since 2014. CFACT Campus has received an additional $16,097 since 2009. [25]

The following totals are based on DeSmog’s review of publicly available 990 forms:

DonorDonorDonor
YearCharles G. Koch Charitable FoundationCharles Koch InstituteGrand Total
2014$5,376$5,376
2015$13,876$10,500$24,376
2016$8,500$8,500
Grand Total$27,752$10,500$38,252

According to publicly available 990s, the grants had the following purpose:

Charles Koch Foundation

Charles Koch Institute

990 Forms

....


sw 3 22

https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Committee_for_a_Constructive_Tomorrow

...

Affiliates Listed on 2010 "Provisional" U.N. Document

For the June 2010 U.N. climate talks in Bonn, the "Provisional list of participants" [3] lists over 30 individuals in the CFACT entourage, including many not previously associated with the organization. But these "extras" - including "Senior Advisor" Nir Shaviv, who denies any CFACT tie - do not appear in the "Final list of participants"[4]. It is not known why these additional individuals appeared as CFACT affiliates.

Funding

CFACT is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit group under the of code of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.[8] On its website, CFACT does not disclose its corporate or foundation funders.[9]

Media Transparency calculates that between 1991 and 2006 CFACT gained $1,280,000 from 18 grants from only two foundations -- the Carthage Foundation and the Sarah Scaife Foundation.[10] The Carthage Foundation granted $1,105,000 to CFACT between 1991 - 2006, while the Sarah Scaife Foundation sent $175,000 to the group between 1996 - 2001.

On its website tracking grants to groups, the conservative Capital Research Center listed CFACT as having received grants of $60,500 from Chevron between 1994 and 1998. (The CRC lists the grants comprising $16,000 in each of 1994, 1995 and 1996 and $12,500 in 1998). The CRC also listed CFACT from having received $25,000 from DaimlerChrysler Corporation Fund $25,000 and a token $500 from the Ford Motor Company Fund.[11]

ExxonMobil contributed $5,000 in each of 1997 and 1998.[11] Greenpeace's ExxonSecrets website adds that Exxon has contributed a further $577,000 between 2000 and 2007.[12]

Contact Information

CFACT

P.O. Box 65722

Washington, D.C. 20035

Phone: 202-429-2737

Email: info AT cfact.org

Web: http://www.cfact.org

Street Addresses

Guidestar.org lists CFACT at 7521 Presidential Ln, Manassas, VA 20109; this is the address of its tax preparer Hendershot, Burkhardt and Reed (which was used by many like-minded groups).

Some online webpages have CFACT at 1825 I St. NW in Washington, but as of April 2010 this was incorrect[13]; the actual office address appears to be a virtual office in the same International Square complex, at 1875 I St. NW, 5th floor.[14]

External Links


https://www.causeiq.com/organizations/committee-for-a-constructive-tomorrow,521462893/

General information

Address

1717 Pennsylvania Ave NW Suite 1

Washington, DC 20006

Metro area

Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV

County

District of Columbia, DC

Website URL

cfact.org/

Phone

(202) 429-2737

Facebook page

cfact

Twitter profile

@cfact

IRS details

EIN

52-1462893

Fiscal year end

December

Taxreturn type

Form 990

Year formed

1986

Eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions (Pub 78)

Yes

Categorization

NTEE code, primary

C20: Pollution Abatement and Control Services

NAICS code, primary

813319: Social Advocacy Organizations

Parent/child status

Independent

EIN 52-1462893

Committee for A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT)

Programs|Form 990s|Funding|Grantmaking|Financials|Personnel|Peers

IRS 501(c) type

501(c)(3)

Num. employees

10

City

Washington

State

District of Columbia

Year formed

1986

Most recent tax filings

2019-12-01

NTEE code, primary

C20: Pollution Abatement and Control Services

Description

At the heart of CFACT, our goal is to enhance the fruitfulness of the earth and all of its inhabitants. CFACT accomplishes this through four main strategies: Prospering Lives, Promoting Progress, Protecting the Earth, and Providing Education.

Program areas at CFACT

Research and education materials to the public concerning important consumer and environmental issues through newletters, radio commentary, campus and community workshops and seminars, media interviews, fact sheets, press releases, briefing papers, opinion articles, and other educational materials. Also, projects that involve training and economic development in impoverished communities in the developing world.

Form 990s for CFACT

Fiscal year ending Date received by IRS Form PDF link

2019-12 2021-06-03 990 View PDF

2018-12 2020-01-24 990 View PDF

2017-12 2018-10-05 990 View PDF

2016-12 2017-08-15 990 View PDF

2015-12 2016-10-20 990 View PDF

...and 6 more Form 990s

Who funds Committee for A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT)

Grants from foundations and other nonprofits

Grantmaker Grantmaker tax period Description Amount

Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund 2020-06 For Grant Recipient's Exempt Purposes $101,982

2019-12 Donation $100,000

2020-06 Public, Societal Benefit $31,830

...and 9 more grants received

Grants made by CFACT

Grantee Grant description Grant year Amount

DonorsTrust Educational 2013-12 $50,000

:{

}:

Financials for CFACT

RevenuesExpensesAssetsLiabilities

Revenues FYE 12/2018 FYE 12/2017 % Change

Total grants, contributions, etc. $1,594,427 $1,586,866 0.5%

Program services $0 $669 -100%

Investment income and dividends $0 $0 -

Tax-exempt bond proceeds $0 $0 -

Royalty revenue $0 $0 -

Net rental income $0 $0 -

Net gain from sale of non-inventory assets $-1,193 $993 -220.1%

Net income from fundraising events $0 $0 -

Net income from gaming activities $0 $0 -

Net income from sales of inventory $8,583 $0 999%

Miscellaneous revenues $21,638 $30,441 -28.9%

Total revenues $1,623,455 $1,618,969 0.3%

Personnel at CFACT

Name Title Date of data

Craig Rucker Executive Director, Co - Founder 2021-07-29

Marc Morano Director of Communications 2021-07-29

Graham Beduze Associate Collegians Director 2021-07-29


3m 3m 5 m to 2 mil$ 2013? 400k 3 officers rucker roth morano 50K grant (pass thru? yup donors trust again for dev and ed in poor countries?!) "other" expense 280K$; clearword 1m$ mailings (addr in prev]

http://conservativetransparency.org/app/uploads/Committee-for-a-Constructive-Tomorrow-2013.pdf


2020 990

darren gibbs bro in law, wife clearword fundrauser 760K kept 60?

most $ went to officers 106 133k?

http://www.cfact.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/2018-Form-990.pdf


just # but why?

https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/committee-for-a-constructive-tomorrow/


https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/fighting-climate-chaos/climate-deniers/front-groups/collegians-for-a-constructive-tomorrow-cfact-campus/

collegians For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT Campus)

Koch Industries Climate Denial Front Group

Aligned with the views of Paul Driessen, a CFACT senior fellow and industry consultant who claims environmentalists are subjecting low-income Americans and the Global South to perpetual poverty,  a CFACT Campus blog falsely proclaims, “there is no scientific consensus though that global warming is man-caused or that more affordable energy methods such as nuclear, coal, and natural gas play a significant role in climate change.”  CFACT offered up a total $6,000 in prizes to students willing to make YouTube videos denying the conclusions of climate science for AllPainNoGain.org, a CFACT website hyping economic doom and government restrictions of personal freedom. :{There is no evidence of more than }4 videos:{ submitted to the contest, the top three of which were awarded $3,000, $2,000 and $1,000 respectively.}:

At CPAC 2011, CFACT Campus students set up a booth allowing passersby to throw eggs at pictures of former vice-president Al Gore and Michael Mann, both Nobel Peace Prize laureates for their work around climate science.

A CFACT Campus “Eco-Summit” featured speeches by career deniers, such as Marc Morano of ClimateDepot, a project of parent-organization Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT).

CFACT has promoted the widely-discredited work of career skeptics likeChristopher Monckton and Dr. S. Fred Singer, posting his speeches onYouTube and bringing him to speak at campus events. Alex Epstein of the Ayn Rand Institute is a frequent CFACT Campus collaboratorwho continually writes opinion pieces promoting fossil fuel use–see Koch Industries Climate Denial Front Group: Ayn Rand Institute.

===

Desmog: [“The Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) was founded in 1985 to pursue a free-market approach to environmental issues. They describe their role as "relentlessly infusing the environmental debate with a balanced perspective on environmental stewardship."

According to Media Matters, CFACT's main focus is promoting what it describes as "destructive environmental policies," and it has "waged a decades-long war on environmental activism." [1]

CFACT is darkside/crypto on the offensive because it is trying to destroy PIRGs (Public Interest Research Groups, named specifically as a problem in the Powell Memo, as was its inspiration Ralph Nader (aside from Marxist Marcuse the only enemy to be called by name?). Nader of course was dangerous because he was successfully challenging the nonsense that seat belts and windshields that didn't break into bayonets would bankrupt the automobile industry. Such a threat he was deemed that the car companies paid private investigators to follow him and prostitutes to try to blackmail him; when he won several hundred thousand dollars in damages for this behavior, he promptly used the money to establish the PIRGs, which of course leveraged it to get even more information about corporate malfeasance. So successful and valuable were these, that universities and colleges all over the country started their own, some even getting funding from the student body.

:{

}: Even worse, students were getting the inspiration and skills to move into politics and activism (PIRG alums e.g., U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope, and Randy Hayes of the Rainforest Action Network). The right's reaction was to crank up the incubator, often taking the form of funding rightwing newspapers, but also trying to choke off funding the PIRGs as political (as if the Federalist Society was not).

[Cautionary ironic tale: CFACT gave an award to Helen P. Chenoweth-Hage, who managed to get elected to Congress from Idaho in the 1994 Gingrich takeover by beating up on her opponent for raising the top tax rate from 34 to 36%, (which led to the first balanced budget in decades and the longest economic expansion in US history); her LCV score in single digits. She attacked Clinton for his affair, despite the fact she had had her own for six years, but she was [merely] a lobbyist, and God had forgiven her.

wiki: “During her tenure, she was referred to by her most outspoken critics as a "poster-child for the militias," and in February 1995 she voiced the suspicion that armed federal agents were landing black helicopters on Idaho ranchers' property to enforce the Endangered Species Act, in line with a longstanding conspiracy theory. "I have never seen them," Chenoweth said in an interview in The New York Times. "But enough people in my district have become concerned that I can't just ignore it. We do have some proof."[6] The Los Angeles Times editorialized that during the campaign she gained national attention by "holding 'endangered salmon bakes' during fundraisers, serving canned salmon to ridicule the listing of Idaho salmon as an endangered species." She was quoted as saying in response, "It's the white, Anglo-Saxon male that's endangered today."[7]“ She did honor her promise not to run for a third term [(she later regretted this)], but after retiring she rented a car and drove 300 miles rather than undergo a secondary airport search. Sadly (ironic part:) she died in an SUV when she was thrown out; those in seatbelts had only minor injuries]

my commentary lost?  SUV roll-over,  seat belts Nader;  [Mich GOP official killed herself while adjusting bra holster]

In 2009, CFACT hired Marc Morano, a former spokesman for Sen. James Inhofe, to run ClimateDepot.com. According to Morano, the site was designed to offer research and environmental news that questions the theory of man-made global warming.”end ]  Morano: Hansen will inspire eco-terrorism (equals torching SUV's).

Koch (Donor’s Trust, Dunn, Bradley) , Exxon, Scaife funders.

Cornwall:  one of three founders is Cfact, advised by Dreissen; Sirico

[“ In late 2005, evangelical leaders like Rick Warren joined a drive to back a major initiative to fight global warming, saying “millions of people could die in this century because of climate change, most of them our poorest global neighbors." To counter this historic shift in the evangelical community, a group called the “Interfaith Stewardship Alliance” (ISA) was launched to oppose action on carbon emissions and to deny the existence of climate change. One of the men guiding this group was Paul Driessen, a consultant for ExxonMobil, the mining industry, and for CFACT.”]

Analysis: Rove learning how to shepherd the evangelicals was crucial to getting Dubya W elected in Texas and then as president. Moreover, we have seen Christianity as one of the four dove-tailing ideologies that keep the right in power. So the Christian stewardship movement is a threat in several respects. God promised not to destroy the word again after The Flood, so clearly AGW is not a threat (puny man does not have the power to alter His creation).

Moreover, the center of Jesus’ teaching was to care for the poor, who are impacted first and worst by chemical contamination and climate change, thus evangelicals must demonize those who are their allies; hence reanta-toms useful for EJ cover (Kevin Martin Pjt 21 is from Louisiana aka Cancer Alley].

The stewards, on the other hand, say the way to glorify God is to preserve his creation (an interesting bridge also built regarding mercury: it harms the unborn). Thus the Cornwall Alliance to kill stewardship matters. Green Dragon (serpent is satan and/or China ;)[actually China said to be behind the AGW scam].  This also overlaps/dovetails nicely with Agenda 21, as the UN is both green and red.

Hard to assess effectiveness of CFACT(aside from RS ranking), hard also to see the value to corporate donors on specific issues/legislation (well, except Morano is a sort of cottage industry unto himself, broadcast even more widely by Watt aggregator blog).  Perhaps most newsworthy is the stunts at COPs, which rather echoes the early day of New Right young turks getting generous funding from octogenarian commie fighters by providing street action (small number, brief actions that give the illusion of larger movement?).

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http://www.desmogblog.com/committee-constructive-tomorrow

The Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) was founded in 1985 to pursue a free-market approach to environmental issues. They describe their role as "relentlessly infusing the environmental debate with a balanced perspective on environmental stewardship."

According to Media Matters, CFACT's main focus is promoting what it describes as "destructive environmental policies," and it has "waged a decades-long war on environmental activism." [1]


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